Sheila Bentley, whom Markstein met at the U. of Texas (Austin), became a friend of the family. One of the letters is directed to Elisabeth Markstein's daughter, Barbara (Babsi).

Many of the ALsS are written inside of Christmas cards.

The Christmas card for 1999 contains a typed letter updating Markstein on family news.

The Christmas letter for 2004 is written and signed by Sheila's husband, Bernard.

Boris Birger (1923-2001) was a Russian artist. The TLS is a new years greeting card.

Klaus Birkenhauer was a German author, translator, and literary scholar.

Vera Bischitzky (b. 1950) is a German translator of Russian literature.

Patricia Blake (1925-2010) was a journalist and author who specialized in Soviet-era Russian literature. See also the correspondence section in series 3 on Solzhenitsyn.

Annemarie Böll (1910-2004), the wife of the writer and Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll, was well known for her translations from English to German.

Heinrich Böll (1917-1985), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972, is one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. The Böll letters in this collection are photocopies; Markstein returned the originals to the Böll family.